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Police board takes steps to monitor 'carding' of young men

After years of allowing officers to stop and document a disproportionately high number of black residents, the Toronto Police Services Board is finally taking steps to curb the practice.

Following a recent series of
Star
articles that showed blacks were subjected to three times as many stops as whites, the civilian oversight board passed several motions Thursday that will dramatically increase monitoring of the practice known as “carding.”

A motion from chair Alok Mukherjee recommended that city Auditor General Jeff Griffiths conduct an independent review of the race-based statistics kept by police, who record skin colour — black, brown, white or “other” — each time they stop and document a resident.

Other motions passed included a request that police give a copy of the document card — with the reason for the stop — to the individual; that Police Chief Bill Blair report carding statistics to the board every three months; and that he monitor and address discriminatory practices.

“I’m very optimistic and feel very positive about the response of the board chair,” said Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, a director with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. “I would love to see the city be a leader in the terrible problem of racial profiling.”

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Aviv had high praise for
Star
reporter Jim Rankin, who brought the race data to light through a series of freedom-of-information requests to police that spanned more than a decade.

“We commend the
Toronto Star
and its reporters — Jim Rankin in particular — for their continued investigations into and reporting on the very serious issue of racial profiling of black male youth,” Aviv said at the meeting.

But she said in an interview later that “until we see concrete recording and discipline enforced, I won’t be totally satisfied that things are going to change. Police need to do this police work. They just need to do it in a non-discriminatory manner.”

The association joined the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, Black Action Defence Committee and the African Canadian Legal Clinic in speaking out against carding.

Former mayor John Sewell spoke as a representative of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition. Four of the motions passed were based on his recommendations.

Police have collected race-based data for decades and used it in investigations.

The review by the auditor general would create the first benchmark that could be used to evaluate the data’s effectiveness. The
Star’s
most recent analysis, published last month in a series called
Known to Police,
found that of the people carded between 2008 to mid-2011, fewer than one in five had been arrested or charged in Toronto in the previous decade.

The analysis also found that police card minority youth at such high rates that the number of black and brown males aged 15 to 24 who had been documented was larger than the city’s actual population of young black and brown men.

Blair said he doesn’t believe there’s ever any justification for racial profiling. “It’s an abhorrent activity. We do not in any way tolerate it in our organization.” The chief also said he didn’t dispute the
Star’s
analysis of the police carding data.

It is widely acknowledged that Blair has made the force more diverse. In fact, Mukherjee began the meeting by acknowledging a leadership award given to Blair recently by the Diversity Business Network.

Blair said he would like an opportunity to present the board with information on diversity work by the force, including reaching out to youth and work with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. “There’s been a tremendous effort over the past several years,” Blair said. But the chief has also said in the past that racial bias in a reality in policing.

Blair requested and was given time to report back to the board on the costs associated with providing a copy of document cards to individuals, as well as the recommendation that the force’s Diversity Management Unit monitor carding for discriminatory practices.

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